Joy Sangster, 9, top left, a fourth-grader at Ronald Brown Academy, poses with her mom, Felicia Sangster, and, from left, brother Nehemiah Sangster, 8, a third-grader, cousin Khalil Polk, 7, a second-grader, and sister Trinity Sangster, 8, a third-grader. The new building has rest rooms in the classrooms and more. / Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

Principal Damon Sewell checks out the 4rth grade guinea pig outside Ronald Brown Academy that is one of the schools that DPS built with bond money. / Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

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Kevin Sangster sends his three children to Ronald Brown Academy, a campus on Detroit’s east side with an old building and a newer one built in 2001.

The new building has air-conditioning, rest rooms in the classrooms, carpeting and smartboards instead of chalkboards. Teachers have an office in their classrooms. The building has a circular driveway for easier drop-offs and pickups.

Detroit Public Schools constructed Brown Academy’s newer building using more than $18 million in bond funds from the 1994 ballot measure. Unlike many DPS buildings, it is brimming with students — 760 children — enough to justify the use of both the new and old buildings for the prekindergarten through sixth-grade school.

“It was a pretty efficient use of that money,” Mark Schrupp, chief operating officer for DPS, said of the several newer schools that are near capacity.

Sangster likes it because it sends a message to his children that education is important — and that adults care about them and their education enough to ensure that they have the equipment and facilities they need.

“A newer building brings a more positive atmosphere. It’s cooler, more welcoming, more inviting. It’s appealing,” he said. “Small details make kids feel important, like somebody cares. Their environment has a real sway on how they feel.”

The Ronald Brown Academy isn’t the only one.

More than a decade has passed since Roberto Clemente Academy in the southwest part of the city was constructed, but the newness has endured. It has the same architecture as Brown Academy and two other elementary schools DPS built in 2001.

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On a recent tour, assistant principal Maria Hernandez-Martinez showed off the kindergarten and preschool classrooms. The rooms have their own exits to age-appropriate playgrounds reserved for smaller children. And exit doors to the outside help make dismissal time smoother and safer for the youngest students, she said.

Clemente sits within a mile of a popular charter school, but it is competing well. Clemente was projected to enroll 600 students this school year but exceeded that. The school is near capacity, with 763 students.

The building’s perks help attract parents: a small nurse’s station; a multipurpose room that is used as a gym, auditorium and cafeteria; athletic fields; an instrumental music room; carpeted halls to mitigate noise; an elevator; cubbies in rooms instead of lockers where kids can hide contraband; four or more computers in each class; a technology-filled media center and working copy machines.

But it also helps to have a staff that addresses students’ needs as well as communicates in Spanish and English with its high population of bilingual parents, Hernandez-Martinez said.

“This school is very structured,” she said. “Our families are very comfortable.”

Damon Sewell, principal at Brown Academy, said a well-equipped building is a starting point for offering a good education.

“It helps with the morale of teachers; it makes their job easier,” Sewell said. “We’re giving them what they need, taking away obstacles like old chalkboards, lead, asbestos. When everything is old, you’re asking them to perform a miracle if they don’t have the tools they need.